What season is it ?? - Placement season!!

It is that season of the academic year that students eagerly expect; and quite commonly one that professors are usually resentful - Placement....

Past few days were a countdown sequence to the start of the interviews - the much attention grabbing  Day 1 of the interviews where big shot companies compete to grab the most coveted talent of the IITs(Source: Various news sources and gossips). We had our end sems immediately followed by screening tests of few companies to lead upto today.

12:00 AM marks the start of Day 0 - one last day before the interviews; and consequently scheduled with a line-up of tests. From CS viewpoint - bigshots like Google, Microsoft, Opera, Twitter and Rocketfuel are coming on Day 1.

The last few days were eventful too - besides the tests themselves - one got to see serious preparations, planning, anticipation, expectation on the upcoming events. Personally - I was there refreshing the placement blogpage every now and then in hopes of getting shortlisted; and thats the scene in general - appreciate the people who got shortlisted, and a "Happy to see you in the club!" cheer for the ones who werent. 

So finally tonight I got shortlisted for Oracle's interview; and in the spirit of which this post is coming out. Oracle is on Day 2, so Day 1 is free(actually preparation time) - Time to watch the Day 1 drama and face the music on Day 2.

Wishing all the best to all my friends and to myself :)

23 on 23

Another year added to my tally - now 23 years old. And the above song captures my emotions quite well :D

This year I tried a few funny things - trying many ways to keep it a secret to prevent bumps and ended up giving a treat to the guys anyway!

It started off with removing the birthday notification from facebook - the main source of knowing your friends' birthday in today's world. Then I also disabled posting on my wall. So I was only expecting a few wishes by message. But alas I forgot tagging - so a friend did try to stir up some interest by tagging my birthday on his wall. By the way thanks to all the guys who did remember my birthday without the help of fb...

But the idea worked - didnt get GPLed(IITB lingo for birthday bumps on you know where..) on the midnight! Only one Birthday paradox friend - sharing birthday with me knew it; and far later in the night another friend got to know from a birthday wish call. 

All this circus and I blew my own cover today - and took a few of the guys for a treat at a restaurant. But its a real dilemma to decide whom to include and whom not to. However it felt good to hurdle around a group of friends and take them to party - and it felt extra good to get the bill less than expected ;-) 

Various PPTs

The first part of this placement season is nearing to a close: PPTs , viz. Pre-Placement Talks.

It was a mixed bag - some short ppts, some extremely long; some interesting, some very boring; some of established companies, some of relative startups;some that grabbed attention, and a lot that did not..

All in all, it was an interesting phase - although frankly without the 25% mandatory weekly attendance rule, things would have been different.

Apart from going over the company objectives, job profile, work environment, goals, and not to forget package; a few had other things to keep us interested.

There were companies that gave away a Kindle(no guesses who..) to Key bunches; and quite commonly T-shirts..

And a few Deja-Vu's as well - like the Stack by Stack presence and product explanation of NetApp, Intel's Pie graph of compensation breakdown etc; back from PESIT days.

Amazon had a problem grasping and solving session following its ppt; which was quite interesting.

Microsoft had a great place to show off its Surface, Kinect and other Windows 8 products arriving soon into the market(And a lot other companies did show off too)

Other than the traditional IT, development and research profiles that one can get in software, financial or analytical firms; one does get to see unconventional job profiles too - like Epic systems that works on Healthcare software, Strand Life that works on biological data etc.

But the placement process certainly differs here. 

Most companies give their ppt before, and have tests much later - quite different from the placement that used to happen in my former college. Only a few like Adobe and DirectI had their test following the presentation.

And right now it is the time of giving tests and waiting for the shortlists to be announced later.

Not to forget - some big names like Google, Twitter dont have ppts but have their tests directly scheduled.

More on the tests in the next post..

A day of Good things

Finally a good day after a string of monotonous days of everyday nothingness; that has persuaded me to blog after a long long time...!!

First thing - woke up at 7!! - An achievement of the recent past; but had to get up for I had my MTP presentation due in the afternoon..
Although the day didnt have a great start - spilt milk and corn flakes over chutni - and in effect ended up eating a mix of Uttapam, Chutni, Corn flakes and Milk for breakfast; but the rest of the day went on pretty well.

Later on: "Pappu pass ho gaya!".
Done with the fearsome stage 1 presentation - that weighs in at 50 credits and hence important. I was quite tensed but it did go rather well..
Not that it was supposed to be a heavy burden; but now that stage 1 is done; there is time for the other things in academia...

Its placement season - so we are having a test or two every day.
Today there were two company tests. And I did considerably well in one and willingly screwed up the other(cause the job posting isnt in Namma Bengaluru..).
Perhaps the former company is the first one on which I have some confidence of getting shortlisted...

So November has started off well, and in the hope of this continuing :-)